Google's doodles set to get more interactive

"This also helps us connect to our users better. We've been doing exciting doodles simply because we want to have fun, more often with our pages and doodles are one way we could achieve that while giving our users something enjoyable when they come to our homepage. It is difficult to measure how its has helped Google but it allows users to be part of its community," says Rungta.

In India, the search giant took everyone by surprise when it paid homage to India's first talkie, Alam Ara through a doodle.

The doodle of Alam Ara that commemorated 80 years of the first Indian talkie, was the result of a meeting held in December last year.

Google's doodles set to get more interactive

"The Alam Ara doodle also came out of one such meeting. The Indian marketing team was brain storming on which events from India can be doodled.

"We were trying to find out if someone has completed 100 years or if any event from Bollywood can be doodled. And one of us just came up with Alam Ara. The first Indian talkie completed its 80 years," he says.

Creating the visual for Alam Ara was a tad difficult. As the last existing prints of the movie was destroyed in a fire in Pune's National Film Archives in 2003.

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Image: Nikhil Rungta says Google is making technology more interactive.

Google's doodles set to get more interactive

Every doodle needs to be okayed by designers in Mountainview, Google's headquarters.

The doodle designers team is led by Dennis Hwang.

"Everything and anything cannot be a doodle. Every country team recommends ideas to the global team. Then the Mountainview team comes back and tells us if this fits in our policy. They need to look at every doodle concept from importance and relevance. Also the idea is not to hurt anyone's religious sentiments," said Rungta.

Since the launch of the Google India page, 15-20 India centric doodle's have been created. But interestingly, the first doodle related to India was created even before the Google India page was launched.

Google's doodles set to get more interactive

The first doodle was designed by Page and Brin. A year later in 2000, Page and Brin asked the present webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day.

Pleased with the result, Dennis was appointed Google's chief doodler. The doodle team has created over 300 doodles for Google.com in the US and over 700 have been designed internationally. Though Google does allow users to share ideas for doodle, majority of doodles have been created by in-house designers.

A few years ago, to connect with children across the globe the search giant started Doodle4Google.

It is an initiative that allows children to create doodles around a theme and they are then used during children's day.

Google's doodles set to get more interactive

In India Doodle4Google was started two years back. In 2009, it received participation from 4,500 children. In 2010, the number went up to 100,000. Doodle4Google competition is hosted in 15 countries across the globe.

Rungta says the Google logo might just get more interactive.

Google seems to have an amazing memory of all things innovative - be it first high pressured steam engine or the 50th anniversary of first human space flight or the 119th anniversary of the first documented ice cream sundae.